Talk about a bird’s eye view! Directors love a good rooftop scene, especially when there’s an action sequence involved. The blood-pumping action with stunning views is always a winning combination. Have you ever thought about how often rooftops are featured in popular flicks?
To highlight the importance of roofs (and the roofing industry, of course–our favorite subject!), here’s a quick look at four memorable scenes from famous movies where the roof (or roofs) became an iconic setting.
The Matrix (1999)
You can’t think of awesome rooftop scenes without The Matrix coming to mind. It’s by far one of the most influential sci-fi movies ever made due to its reality-bending special effects (thanks Wachowski sisters!) and crazy intense fight scenes. Perhaps the most memorable scene is during a rooftop fight where the epic heroes, Neo and Trinity, encounter one of the dangerous agents sent to kill them. The agent attempts to gun down Neo, but he miraculously dodges the bullets, bending his body around them in slow-motion. Fun fact: the now-iconic rooftop segment wasn’t filmed on a real roof. Filmmakers shot the slow-mo, bullet-dodging segment using green screens and digitally re-created the rooftop. Still, we can’t help but get chills when we watch it.
Die Hard (1988)
Although people like to argue about whether it’s a Christmas movie or not (we weigh in–it is!), Die Hard is now considered one of the greatest action movies and has spawned multiple sequels, all starring the inimitable Bruce Willis as NYPD Detective John McClane. Die Hard features some amazing stunts, including one filmed on the roof of the Fox Plaza, portrayed as the Nakatomi Plaza in the movie.
Having fought off multiple bad guys, John McClane heads to the roof where hostages were forced to relocate. The villains cleverly wired the roof to blow up, so McClane fires his gun into the air to scare the hostages back inside. FBI agents in a helicopter mistake McClane for a terrorist and fire on him, and to escape them and the ensuing explosion, he uses a fire hose to leap off the roof and re-enter the building through a window. Whoa. We just want to keep watching it over and over again!
Ghostbusters (1984)
“Who you gonna call?”. Thanks to its blend of comedy, horror, action, and memorable performances, Ghostbusters became a cultural phenomenon. While there are some fantastic creepy moments in the sewer ways of New York, the final battle that takes place atop the transformed roof of a New York City apartment building is out of this world–literally.
At the top of the building, the Ghostbusters encounter a portal to another dimension where they confront Gozer, a hair-raising demigod of destruction. In the ensuing battle, they famously combat the gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and “cross the streams” of their proton packs to close the portal and save the day. All in a day’s work for the Ghostbusters. And viewers win with some excellent rooftop action.
Skyfall (2012)
When you think of hard-to-believe, epic action scenes, the mind goes to James Bond. Skyfall, just one of the many movies in the James Bond franchise, ramped up the action to the level we expect for Bond, James Bond as Bond chases down a mercenary in Istanbul, both Bond and the mercenary end up on motorcycles (of course they do) while precariously driving on top of tile roofs (naturally). The film’s ending also includes a rooftop scene, with Bond standing on a roof gazing at the skyline while he and his partner from the opening scene (revealed to be Moneypenny) converse about the future. A movie worth savoring while sipping a martini (shaken, not stirred).
There are plenty of other movies out there with iconic rooftop scenes, but these are our favorites.
You may not be motorcycle-jumping off rooftops in a distant land–but you might be thinking about maintaining or re-doing your roof.
Whatever your vision is, No Payne Roofing can help you make it epic and iconic. From roof replacements to roof repairs in Calgary, we offer reliable, fast, and courteous services along with unmatched quality craftsmanship.
Give us a shout today, and let’s work together to make your roofing job a reality.